Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary said he wants to buy TikTok but he needs President-elect Donald Trump’s help to pull off the deal.
O’Leary, dubbed the reality TV show’s “Mr Wonderful,” said he has joined with the People’s Bid for TikTok project’s Frank McCourt in the potential multi-billion dollar deal as the Chinese company behind the app awaits its fate in the U.S. later this month. The People’s Bid for TikTok is a group looking to purchase the popular platform and save it from a ban.
“Trump will be who we have to work with to close the deal in the months ahead,” O’Leary said on Fox News’ The Story with Martha MacCallum on Monday.
“So I wanted to let him know, as well as others in his cabinet, that we’re doing this, and we’re going to need their help.”
The reality star didn’t elaborate on how the incoming administration can aid in the purchase plan.
On December 18, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear TikTok’s challenge to the bipartisan 2024 law that would force its Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the platform to a U.S. company by January 19 — the day before Trump’s inauguration — or see it banned entirely.
McCourt’s Project Liberty is campaigning to purchase the app and migrate the platform to new infrastructure that would allow “people to control their own data,” the organization says.
“TikTok has immense potential—not just as a tool for creators and businesses, but as a cornerstone of a more secure, people-centered digital future,” O’Leary said in a statement. “Together with Frank, we aim to deliver an American-owned platform that safeguards national security while empowering its 170 million U.S. users to thrive.”
At the end of December, Trump asked the Supreme Court to block the imminent ban on the app in the U.S. if its Chinese parent company doesn’t sell it by next month’s deadline.
Trump previously supported banning the app and issued an executive order to ban the platform in 2020, which was successfully challenged in court.
On the campaign trail, however, Trump appeared to change his mind.
“I was at the point where I could have gotten it done if I wanted to,” he told MSNBC’s Squawk Box on March 11. “There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it. There are a lot of users.”
Backers of the law argue that ByteDance’s ownership gives the Chinese government a potential backdoor into the private information of its U.S. users, as well as a powerful covert propaganda tool.
TikTok and its supporters argue that the company has already made efforts to wall its U.S. users’ data off from ByteDance, and that banning it now would infringe on free speech and impact the livelihoods of millions of people.
The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on January 10.
